Shade's memories
by CrazyNutSquirrel
Summary: My character Shade the Hedgehog's origins are revealed. It turns out her real identity is a little surprising. Rated T for safety.
1. Chapter 1

Shade's memories

Prologue

The discovery

_Shade turned around, "V? Edward? Anyone? Are you guys there?" She heard a scream, she turned..._

And woke up yelling. She blinked, she was sweating again. The same dream. But why was she dreaming about her.... A knock on the door interrupted those thoughts. "Shade?" Knock knock knock. "Shade?" "Yes?" "Are you alright?" "Yes." She swung her legs over the edge of the bed and rubbed her eyes. "Why... why... why... why... why..." She headed downstairs.

Her hand stretched and liquified before solidifying around the last tart and bringing it back to Shade's plate. "Aww no fair Shade!" Complained Ball. Laughing, Shade split it in half. "Thanks Shade!" She watched him wolf it down, "Stop doing that or you'll choke!" Ball stopped to stare at her officiously, "My powers prevent me from choking." He said, before going back to his food. Shade laughed, "Okay, whatever you say boss."

"Boss? Who ya' callin' boss?" He glared at her fiercely. "No one! I didn't say a thing!" Shadow and Sonic had come (Shadow only because Sonic had somehow angered him enough to come... somehow) to stay for the day. So Shadow was flipping through the newspaper, bored, while Sonic wolfed down toast. He paused to ruffle Ball's hair, "Good on ya' Ball! Show her who's boss!"

He recoiled from Shade's glare, "I'll take it from Ball but I won't take shinanigans from you." She growled. Shadow smirked behind the newspaper. Vivid looked over Shadow's shoulder, "New continent found? In the northwest? Interesting."

Shade slowly rose from her spot and tried to make it out the door. "Stay Shade, this could be interesting." Said Tralska. She was forced to stay and listen, eyes closed, as Vivid read the article aloud.

_This new continent apparently has no name. The Mobians who inhabit it simply called it "Home". Though some would joke and call it "Hum". So it has, to everyones surprise, been named Hum Island. There is a natural phenomenon there where trees make a humming noise in midwinter, though why this happens no one knows._

_The Hum islanders have a castle too, where there is only one resident. In one time-line, there were supposed to be eight children around the time that the crocodile known as Dr. Crike tried to destroy the royal family using one of the daughters. But someone changed the timeline, while everyone remembered it, so there would only be three children, two boys, and one girl. The youngest boy would be a baby, and Crike did not want to deal with more than one boy, so he used a poison that would destroy the child slowly, though painlessly._

_The king and queen of Hum Island are long gone, though Prince V is still there. Why his parents named him V no one knows, except his older sister, Shade the Hedgehog and her two cousins, Ike and Peter the Hedgehogs._

Vivid's eyes were wide around the end, and Shade was shaking. Peter and Ike had fled when they heard the part about their youngest cousin. Shade stood there, eyes closed, as they stared at her. "Sh...Shade?" "Leave me alone." She darted out of the room, ignoring their calls for her to come back. She zoomed outside, then raced along the street.

She didn't bother to apologize to the people she was knocking over, she needed to get to Hum Island... she couldn't stay here. She had tried to put her past behind her, but it had decided to follow her, she had relaxed, and it had pounced.

**Authoress note: Woohoo! :D Cool stuff. **

**Shade: *glares at CrazyNutSquirrel* You call me having my youngest brother dying cool?**

**Authoress: NO! The part where you are going back to your home to become the new queen.**

**Shade: I'm only going to see V.**

**Authoress: Reaaaaaalllly.... *looks at ceiling innocently***

**Shade: *suspiciously looks at authoress* What are you smiling about?**

**Authoress: Nothing.... *grins***


	2. Chapter 2

Shade's memories

Chapter 1

Return pt. 1

Shade ran over the water, something inside her acting like a compass to guide her back home. She slowed once on the island. It was quiet, here it was winter, while it was summer where she had been. She walked slowly forward, and saw a fox, it flicked it's ears around, staring at her, wide eyed. She crouched and held out a hand. (It's not an anthro one just so you know, it's like the foxes we see on good old planet earth). It cautiously came forward and sniffed her hand, then licked it. She remained there, stroking it's head and rubbing it's ears. She sat in the snow, the fox curled up in her lap.

She could see the sun starting to set after awhile. A noise started to fill the air, a gentle hum. She relaxed completely, this was a noise she had always looked forward to during the winter days of her childhood. She looked up and remembered a sunny morning in winter, as far back as she could remember....

_Shade, three years old, yet tall enough to be five._

A small black figure jumped over the frost covered hedges and ran for the forest. She could hear her pursuers panting heavily, "Princess Shade please get back here!" She pressed her lips together, determined not to give away her position. She saw a flash of brown and realized one of them was hiding in the woods. It didn't matter, she leapt up and scaled a tree quickly, a huge old oak tree.

She leaned against the trunk once she was high enough to not be seen. She watched through the leaves as the sun came closer to setting, she could hear the helpers of the castle running around searching for her with no success. The sun finally reached sunset. A slow hum started to fill the air, Shade leaned back again. The bark vibrated gently against her back. She loved sitting in the oak trees when they hummed, their hum was the lowest, and most gentle. The pine trees had the highest, and sharpest.

She shuddered as she thought of sharp things, the oak vibrated a little more until she calmed down. She smiled at the tree and patted it. Then her smile disappeared as she remembered what Crike's experiments might do to her. Her natural talent was to be able to understand things that grew, things that were pure, or mostly pure. But slowly... as Crike's experiments continued, she felt it slipping away. He had been trying to cut down all the forest trees too, she knew that they had a magic that kept her powers going, and Crike didn't want that.

Crike wanted her powers blocked so that she would get the full powers he gave her through the injections. She still didn't understand why he wanted to do it to her. He parents didn't realize the injections he gave her gave her pain, they just thought that she was taking it a little too hard. And so Crike was allowed to continue. The humming slowly disappeared to be replaced with the sounds of crickets chirping, she heard an irritated hoot behind her and saw she was half covering the entrance to the home of an owl.

"Oh, I'm sorry sir." The owl inclined it's head so she could stroke the feathers and lift him out of the tree, "Good hunting to you." It spread it's wings and flapped off. She quickly slid down the tree, thanked it quietly for the help it had given her, and swept off towards the castle.

The lights were still on and uproar was constant. "Shade! Shade! We must find her! We must find my daughter!" "Where are the guards?! Send them out!" But Shade walked forward, "Hello father, mother." Immediately they calmed down, so did everyone else.

Her mother hugged her, "Oh Shade why did you scare us like that?" Shade looked at her, "Dr. Crike wasn't going to let me go listen to the trees." The King's face softened, "Oh my darling one, I know how you love the trees." "The trees are bad for her." Said a shifty looking crocodile. For the only time Shade could ever remember him doing, her father went against Crike, "No Crike, allow her the trees, she isn't allowed to even get her own horse, Blueberry saddled to ever be ridden. Give her the trees."

Because of that, Shade had the entire forest to herself. She would wander around them in the daylight hours, and sometimes evening hours, and four helpers would be there to watch her. They enjoyed it when they got a chance to guard her, because of how innocent she was. She would suddenly cry out in alarm and push them backwards or grab their leg and stop it from descending, to save a ladybug or a caterpillar, then she would pick them up gently and put them on a tree, telling them they were much safer there.

Bears would gather honey and she would laugh as the wild creatures got it smeared all over their faces. The helpers were in awe of their princess, she was so good, so kind, so sweet, so caring... she hated the word servant, her father made it illegal to call anyone a servant. Even though she told him it wasn't necessary to go that far. She had eaten dinner when Crike insisted that she needed to have another injection. The injections were "required" because Shade was taller than most children her age yes, but she was still very thin, and she wasn't too strong.

To her horror, her parents agreed. She darted away, "SHADE!" But she kept on running, she was terrified of Crike's experiments on her. She knew the truth, Crike had told her, knowing no one else would believe her. He had given her an injection when she was a baby to make her how she was now, she could take care of the colt her father had given her, but she wouldn't ever be able to ride her. Riding horses would be bad for her, in the end her father gave in. She would never ride Blueberry.

She darted around Tom, one of the butlers, "Princess Shade please!" But she wouldn't listen, she ran up into a tower she had been given by her mother for when she needed to think, she didn't stop to lock the door, she went out the window and onto the roof, she scrambled along it and slipped into the night-time forest.

She re-appeared the next morning, in the kitchen, not tired at all. After a bit of cajoling they found she had stayed up the whole night and hunted with some foxes. She was scolded and hugged alternately by the head cook. All the staff loved her. And she loved them in return, "I'm sorry, it's just.... I don't like getting the injections. They scare me." Because of Crike, they attributed that to her "condition".

One of the maids gasped, "Oh dearie me I almost forgot! You have a new baby brother." "A what?!" "A new baby brother!" Shade rushed out of the kitchen and tore up the stairs, she came to a stop in front of her parent's room, before she could knock however, a hand covered her mouth from behind and a needle went into her neck. She tried to struggle, but she was held firmly. A voice hissed in her ear, "Don't avoid it girl... you WILL be my weapon to use..." Crike slipped away then, leaving Shade in front of her parent's room, shivering. The injection had been a bright sickly green, she felt sick now.

She had to go sit in the library, curled up on a chair having spasms, for ten minutes before she could go to her parent's room. Her mother lay on the bed, and her father was scanning the grounds outside the window when she entered. "Mother?" The Queen turned, "Oh Shade!" Her father hugged her, "We were afraid you were hurt out there Shade!" "I'm fine Daddy. Barbara said I have a new baby brother, is that true?"

"Yes it is my dear." She was shown a little black male hedgehog, he had dark green eyes, and a little white tuft of chest fur. As well as a small amount of red hair she could tell would grow into two different locks. She smiled at him, and he smiled at her, "What is his name?" "V." "V? Why V?" Her father chuckled, "Because we love that movie that ambassador Jules brought with him, it's called V for Vendetta, it's wonderful." Her mother agreed. "I won't be able to take care of V much, would you like to do that for me Shade?"

Shade's eyes lit up, "Of course mother!"

_Present day (or rather, night)..._

Shade sighed. That was years ago. A tear came to her eye, the fox was in her lap still, but it was shivering a little, she looked at the small brown mark it had on one of it's ears. She smiled, it was either one of the fox pups she had run with that night, or a descendant of that fox.

She gently picked it up and walked through the forest to the location of the den, the other foxes growled until they saw their fellow member, she placed him among the warm bodies, gave them some meat she had found on the way that a careless owl had dropped, and walked off.

Something rubbed against her leg, she looked down, a fox pup was looking up at her with wide eyes, she smiled, inclined her head, and walked on. Towards the hedge maze near the castle.

**Authoress: *yawns***

**Disclaimer: Oh great.... morning breath.**

**Authoress: *glares* Morning breath yourself. Thank you for reading this.... *yawns again* it might be day where Carito is but whether or not... happy birthday Carito. ;) *yawns* Sorry for all the yawning. *yawns***

**Disclaimer: *rolls eyes* You can guess who she owns and doesn't own.**


	3. Chapter 3

Return pt. 2

_Shade is five, V is two._

Shade walked through the maze, a sparrow chirping and leading her through it, she walked because the sparrow wasn't able to lead her any faster, if she _could _have gone faster she would have, she had heard V scream and knew he had hurt himself, he, like she had told him not to, had gone onto the top of the hedges in the maze and had fallen.

She put her hand into the leaves and the branches grew up to snake around her arm, _Only a little further _was their message to her. She withdrew her arm and continued. She turned the corner and there was V, his face tearstained, holding his leg. She crouched by him, stroking his head, "Oh V, my poor little brother..... here." She signaled to the sparrow and it darted off, a falcon came back in it's place with some vines that the bears had separated from trees, she wrapped them around her brothers leg and focused the dormant healing energy in them to fix her brother's leg.

They glowed softly then dimmed, energy gone. "Thank you." She waved to the hawk, it gave a screech of recognition then flew away. She picked V up. "Are you okay V?" "I... I think so. Thanks sis." He hugged her, she smiled, "Let's go to the trees! They'll be singing their song right about now!" In the winter the trees hummed, in the spring they popped, in the summer they whistled, and in the fall they sang. They sang a song in an unknown language that told of the history of the world.

It was told in the rustling of the leaves, in the creaking of the branches, in the smell of the wood. V and Shade sat in the forest, sharing a honey comb with a mother bear and her two cubs as this song played above them and sunlight reached the forest floor through the leaves. "Sis, how long do you think you'll have your powers?" "Forever I hope." "Why does Crike do that stuff to you sis?" "I don't know V, I don't know."

Twenty minutes later Shade was progressing along the hallway to her room in a slightly painful manner, Crike had grabbed her as she left V's room and injected her again, her knees burned with pain and behind her eyes there was a throbbing sensation. She collapsed onto her bed.

Then she sat up. She had a very good idea. She quickly wrote a letter to her two cousins Peter and Ike, asking them to come over. Within two days time she received an answer that they would probably already be on their way by the time she received their letter in reply. And sure enough, during the afternoon, she and V saw a column of dust in the distance, Shade sat V on Blueberry and they ran out to meet them.

Shade frowned as she looked at the state of their horses, "Another race? What did I....." "What did you tell us? Who is talking? Oh good lord!" Peter now took up the act, "It's the mistress of the stables! She'll have our hides for rushing to the aid of our fair cousin! She'll have our guts for garters! She'll...!" "Oh shut up." Shade cuffed them both affectionately. "Hey!" V giggled, "Don't ever cross her! It's not good for your health." "Same with you too young hedgehog." V giggled. "So what is the trouble?" "We bounty hunters have been searching for a notorious villain named Crike, have you seen him?"

"He is said to wield a needle for a sword and a tube for a shield!" Shade shook her head, "Yup, I need your help again. I got another injection this morning. What have you got this time?" "Two spiders and a toad for his soup..... because spiders can swim and toads love liquid...." "..... itching powder and smoke bombs for his clothes and room...... because those scales look in need of a good scratch...."

".... stinging nettles for a pie..... especially for him......." "...... some glue for his snuff box..... make it a little block of cement....." ".... some....." "Okay cut it out already!" Cried Shade, "Yes dear princess." They said, sweeping off imaginary hats.

"Oh stop it." "For you dear heart, anything! WOOPS!" Ike fell off his horse onto Shade, "I must have slipped, but while I'm here......" He was about to give her a hug until she pushed him off, "I'd rather receive the hug while I am upright thank you." They all laughed, "Race you to the....." "Oh no you don't!" She pulled them off their horses, "Take V and Blueberry back, I'll take Charger and Thunder to the stables."

"Okay then!" They grabbed Blueberries reins and rushed off, Blueberry, a young horse, was excited and easily accepted their challenge in her own terms. Soon they were hanging onto her saddle for dear life. Shade laughed, "Oh look at Blueberry go. That's not for us though is it? Let's go nice and easy...." Suddenly a needle pricked her arm. She cried out and clutched it, the horses bolted towards the stable, she remained there, crouched, as Crike emerged from behind the wall, "Another injection. It is a good thing that no one believes you. This one should bring results by three." And with a short, cruel laugh, he disappeared.

Her eyes were glazed, she reached out to the bushes, in an attempt to use their healing energy as comfort, and froze, no branches grew to meet her, she couldn't feel the healing energy she knew was there either.... Crike had driven her power away.

**O.O Why the heck I'm doing this I don't know.**

**Disclaimer: Maybe because you want to think up all the torture possible?**

**--.-- Don't be an idiot. She's my character, why would I do that?**

**Shade: She doesn't even need to think them up, they are already there.**

**Disclaimer: Ah but some of these she is surely inventing.**

**Shade: Get over here.**

**Disclaimer: Nooooooo....!!!!!! *runs away***


End file.
